The Hunger - Only Lovers Left Alive

Chapter Fourteen

Tension continued to build over the weeks.

Vincent had grown bored, as he tended to do easily, and took to wandering at night and coming home later and later, sometimes not for days.

He would always smell of blood and another human, sometimes multiple ones and seemed to ride in on a high that waned too quickly.

The highs made him pleasant to be around, he was his usual self, bubbly and jokey and loving, but once the high had faded, he turned quiet and didn't want to touch me.

Adam noticed and grew more protective of me.

He showered me with affection, sweet nothings and would calm me with music from an array of different instruments.

This no longer felt like a fledgling and master relationship, he was becoming his own vampire faster than I had anticipated and was soon acting more as a lover, one who cherished me and only me, than as a student looking up to their tutor.

We had taken to going to bed together and sleeping together, both innocently and sexually, more often and I found myself wanting to be around him more.

He became everything that Vincent had once been, how he had seemed to be merely weeks before when he had first arrived home, though I was starting to wonder if I had merely seen him through rose tinted glasses.

Everything had changed so quickly and I wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Don't worry," Adam murmured one night, his hand stroking through my tangled hair, "I'll take care of everything."

It was the night that Vincent tried to bring home another woman, a rather petite looking girl whose hair and make-up was done up to the nines, that something snapped and all the tension came to a head.

Adam and Vincent got into a screaming match and the girl attempted to hide in fear as their argument got louder, this all eventually led to Vincent grabbing her arm before she could leave the room and pulling her out of the house while Adam saw to me and my shaken nerves.

"It'll be okay," he assured, though he sounded more certain than he looked.

He led me to the bedroom and sat me down on the bed before retrieving a much needed refreshment for me.

As I sipped the blood, he sat down next to me and reassured me that everything would be just fine, it would all work out and that I just needed to calm down.

The blood started to settle in my stomach, instantly making it churn and my head turn groggy.

It seemed that I had drank a bad batch of blood, what a perfect way to end the night.

Adam took the glass from my hand and eased me into lying down onto the bed, he then pulled the covers over me despite the fact that I was still dressed and pressed a kiss to my forehead.

"Just sleep," he said softly, pulling away and crossing the room.

I could barely keep my eyes open to see him step into the doorway, stopping to look over his shoulder at me before pulling the door closed, by that point my heavy eyelids were already closing by themselves.

My head was swimming as I woke up, when I opened my eyes there was a strange haze falling over my sight and my head was pounding.

I groaned and tried to move my hands only to find them bound and unmovable beyond an inch or two.

"What the fuck?" I mumbled, shaking my hands to no avail, only achieving in making the chains of the cuffs clink against the headboard. "Vincent! Get me out of these!"

I yelled in frustration, ignoring the pounding in my head.

This wasn't the first time that I'd encountered such a numbing feeling, I had had it years ago when I'd drank a batch of bad blood that had messed with my head.

It was a bad trip and one I had made sure to avoid since, so this came as a surprise.

"Vincent!"

Upon my second yell the door finally opened.

The strong scent of blood filled the room as the door clicked open and Adam stepped into the doorway, obscuring the light that was coming from the hallway which masked his features so he looked like nothing but a shadow standing there.

"Adam, thank god," I sighed, tugging on the shackles to make a point, "will you get these off of me?"

"Not just yet."

"What?"

I frowned in confusion, watching as he stepped further into the room and allowed the light to illuminate the inside of the room, finally giving me a half-decent view of him and his clothes.

Which were covered in blood, fresh blood.

"Adam," I said slowly, watching as he sat down at my side on the edge of the bed, "did you go out hunting?"

"No," he shook his head then looked down at his sodden clothes, "this isn't technically human blood anymore."

The cold bluntness to his voice sent an unpleasant shiver down my spine, though he wasn't looking at me with malice, in fact it was quite the opposite.

When he finally looked at me, it reminded me of a dog that wanted to please its owner.

"What did you do?" I forced myself to ask, though I had many suspicions already as to what was happening.

"I took care of everything."

Had I still needed to breathe, it probably would have caught in my throat.

"Adam, please tell me you didn't."

He looked down at me, giving me the most unemotional smile that I had ever witnessed in my years.

It didn't reach his eyes and yet somehow it was content and self-satisfied, it was creepy and terrifying.

Tears burned in my eyes as I stared up at him, shaking my head slowly in denial.

Adam shushed me gently and moved a few strands of hair out of my face.

"There's no need to cry," he said, "I'm sorry for tricking you into drinking that, but it had to be done and I promise that things will be better from now on."